Simulation

Today continuous planning is a prerequisite for competitiveness. Methods are required, that allow the handling of complexity in rapidly changing and complex networks. Model based methods provide insight in these networks and therefore help realizing advantages in competition. The vision of a modeling plant for building the required models effectively and in an industrial scale and concepts for long term usage of models will make model-based methods attractive for the industry. The validation of planning results using a model will advance the quality of planning and thereby create advantages in competition.

Competitiveness in the German industry, particularly in the capital and consumer goods sectors, is significantly dependent upon how well a company can adapt to market demands. Elements of such an adaptation process are the new development and modification of products, but equally the implementation of new or improved manufacturing technologies. In the parts manufacturing sector, which will be considered more closely in the following, changes to manufacturing programmes require new manufacturing structures. The question as to the integrity of the personnel and equipment structure planning thus arises. The following article will present a simulation-supported, heuristic procedure for the reciprocal adaptation of both planning areas.

In development projects, a delay in connection with budget overruns is often the consequence of unrealistic scheduling. A simulation based approach for modeling development projects has been developed to support the project planner and will be presented in this paper. This novel approach allows the modeling and simulation of the project-specific structural organization and the process organization as well as the typical non-deterministic project behavior. Therefore, a realistic scheduling and resource allocation of complex development projects can be achieved. The application of the approach in projects of our industrial partners in the chemical industry has shown the suitability of the developed tools.

This paper discusses ideas about and experiences with flexible simulation of real-time data streams generated by production networks when state-of-the-art automatic identification and localization technologies are applied. Flexibility here means the possibility to freely define the objects and their related types of events and statuses that are recorded in production and logistics processes. The data streams generated during simulation can be used to test and compare operational control strategies for processes in production networks in an offline or online mode.

A widely established tool for modeling, analysing, evaluating and optimizing in manufacturing planning is the discrete-event material flow simulation. Considerable benefits of using simulation show the necessity of increasingly applying simulation in the planning process. However, applying material flow simulation is also very costly. Results generated from simulation studies can be used for creating simulation-based characteristic diagrams. These diagrams allow the reduction of expenditures required for modeling and experimentation. Simulation-based characteristic diagrams can be used for efficiently solving frequent simulation problems. This paper introduces a methodology for reducing the expenditures required for creating simulation-based characteristic diagrams. The application of this methodology is demonstrated in an example.

This paper presents a simulation study that has been carried out at the Container Terminal Altenwerder in Hamburg in order to examine various topics related to the dispatching of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). After on overview of the structure of the simulation model, the application to the project is discussed. Several simulation experiments are summarized in order to demonstrate the broad applicability of the model.

Shorter product lifecycles, customer-oriented production and raising variants of the manufactured goods are representative for today’s industries. One well-established method for planning, safeguarding and improvement of production processes is the material flow simulation. In order to cover all phases of the process development, a backward-simulation approach beside the usual method is needed. The generated simulation results are moreover to be integrated in “control centre”-views, wherefore a time-oriented execution of the simulation has to be added. This article shows some functions of the material flow simulator d³FACT insight, which already allows to execute simulation models in forward or backward direction, as well as a time-oriented simulation.

Advanced Planning or Supply Chain Planning constitutes a sub-task of Supply Chain Management. It focuses on planning of operational processes, and hence has its primary area of application in manufacturing and distribution of physical products. Advanced Planning Systems (APS) build upon databases of ERP systems. They enhance the latter by a concept of hierarchical planning which makes use of modern methods as developed in Operations Research and related fields. This article gives an overview of solution methods implemented in APS and modelling capabilities.

In order to achieve a flexible reaction to fluctuations in demand the operative working times have to be rearranged. Often flexible working time models are implemented, whose configurations are problematic from personnel and operative points of view. In addition, the currently available evaluation methods turn out to be highly subjective. This article will present a simulation-based working time configuration which allows for a prospective evaluation of working time models.

The paper describes a game called the Supply Net Game, built around the structure of a production supply network based on the “anchoring and adjustment heuristic” which is known as the one people use to make inferences about uncertain events. The game involves four players where everyone manages his manufacturing unit that consists of four production lines which proceed to the joint development of products with the other units. While planning production and controlling inventories, every person should try to minimize the costs caused by both holding items on stock and being in an out-of stock situation. The paper stresses the valuable impact of management games for production engineering education in general and particularly the significance of learning implicit skills as well as gaining insight in inventory control and management of complex distributed production systems such as the system dynamics production network model introduced in the paper.